MARBIDCO: Financing Maryland’s Food and Fiber Future

A Source For Agricultural Business Development Financing Assistance

The Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) provides Maryland agricultural and rural businesses with the supplemental resources they need to start and grow their enterprises.

  • MARBIDCO is a nimble quasi-governmental organization that is an instrumentality of the State of Maryland, with a mission to serve the State's commercial farming, forestry, and seafood industries.

  • MARBIDCO assists qualifying businesses in securing affordable capital and credit for equipment, commercial facilities, and real estate purchases - often partnering with commercial lenders and state and local economic development and land conservation organizations.

  • MARBIDCO is committed to supporting the sustainability of the state's agricultural, forestry, and seafood businesses, most of which are family-run enterprises, while at the same time helping to ensure the viability of the rural working landscape that Marylanders so greatly cherish. A safe and healthy local food supply, clean air and water, thriving rural communities, and productive pastoral scenic vistas are what we plan to help sustain for future generations.

What MARBIDCO Offers:

  • Low and moderate-cost loan programs for farmers, watermen, as well as aquaculture, seafood processing, and wood processing businesses

  • Partnership arrangements with commercial lenders to help maximize rural lending opportunities

  • Beginning Farmer land access financing leading to productive agricultural land being permanently preserved

  • Targeted specialty incentive grants for local farm food aggregation and certain farm and resource-based businesses

  • MARBIDCO staff can consult with individuals and businesses to determine which programs are the best fit.

Maryland Livestock Processing Equipment Grant Program Now Open

MARBIDCO established the Maryland Livestock Processing Equipment Grant Program to help expand livestock processing capacity in Maryland. MARBIDCO will contribute up to 50% towards the eligible costs, with a maximum grant award amount of $50,000 for USDA-inspected slaughter facility projects (including meat and blue catfish processing), and a maximum grant award amount of $20,000 for other USDA-inspected facilities, custom-exempt processing, or mobile processing projects.

Terms and Conditions

Minimum Amount of Grant: $5,000 

Maximum Amount of Grant: $50,000 per project for USDA-inspected slaughter facilities $20,000 per project for other USDA-inspected facilities, custom-exempt, or mobile processing projects

Match Required: Applicants are required to pay at least 50% of eligible project costs.

Applications are due to MARBIDCO by January 17, 2025. Eligible expenses incurred before December 2, 2024, are not eligible. All eligible applicants should purchase or order equipment no later than April 30, 2025.

One of our objectives is to foster emerging industries and assist new and beginning farmers in their business ventures.

For New Farmers

We have several programs to get you on track to purchase a farm no matter what size. The Next Gen and SANG programs assist you with a downpayment and can help preserve the working farmland in perpetuity. Click the button to learn more about education, training, business resources, and our many grant and loan programs tailored to young and beginning farmers. Call us to discuss your future at 410-267-6807. Let’s get started today!

For most MARBIDCO programs, practical farm and/or business experience is required and may be supplemented by academic or hands-on training experience.

Both our loan and grant programs require business plans and borrower financial information to be submitted.

If you have some experience in commercial agriculture, forestry, or seafood, or are working with a mentor, you may qualify for one of our loan or grant programs.

In delivering our financing programs, we work cooperatively with commercial banks, Farm Credit Associations, and the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), as well as other federal, State, and local government agencies and land grant universities. Please contact us to find out which programs may be right for your business.

“As a young farmer with no collateral or credit history to purchase such a big investment, it is hard to get started in the ag business. MARBIDCO and Horizon Farm Credit have allowed us to establish a future for our family business. Since purchasing our farm, we have been steadily improving our operation.”

– Ryan Rhodes, Poultry Farmer
Queen Anne’s County, MD”